Wireless local area network (WLAN) has become one of the fastest growing and hottest technologies in the area of wireless communication. Today, there are several competing WLAN standards such as 802.11, Bluetooth, and HomeRF. Each of the standards is distinctively unique from one another and is appropriate for certain application and environment. Among these wireless standards, 802.11 is the most widely used.
802.11 actually comprises a set of different standards. An incomplete listing includes 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. When 802.11 is generally referred to without the trailing letter, the author most likely meant it to be 802.11b, which is commonly known as wireless fidelity or Wi-Fi. For this writing, 802.11 refers generally to the 802.11 family of standards as a whole. In recent years, the use of 802.11 has dramatically increased. 802.11 connectivity is now commonly used in corporate environment, home, shops, and even in a neighborhood community.
Devices that commonly use 802.11 to connect to the Internet include desktops and laptops. However, wireless technology is not limited to internet connectivity. WLAN standards such as Bluetooth, HomeRF, and even 802.11 can be used for secured device-to-device communication. The demand for increased mobility, security, and connectivity have now expanded beyond desktop and laptop to smaller devices such as personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile phones, and wireless headsets.
TABLE 1CarrierStandardFrequencyDataRangeDevice SizeBluetooth2.4 GHz1Mbps ~30 ftSmallComparedto 802.11802.11a/j  5 GHz54Mbps ~300 ft. indoorLarge~1000 ft. outdoorComparedBluetooth802.11b2.4 GHz11Mbps ~300 ft. indoorLarge~1000 ft. outdoorComparedBluetooth802.11g2.4 GHz36 or 54Mbps ~300 ft. indoorLarge~1000 ft. outdoorComparedBluetooth
For smaller devices, Bluetooth is more suitable than 802.11 because of the battery and the physical size constraints. Bluetooth generally uses less power than 802.11, and the physical size of a Bluetooth chipset is also smaller than the 802.11 counterpart, see Table 1. Although Bluetooth does not transmit large amount of data as compared to 802.11, Bluetooth's maximum data transfer rate of 1 Mbps is sufficient to meet the data transfer demands of small devices. Today, Bluetooth is widely used in mobile phone, PDA, and headset. High-end automobiles are also now Bluetooth equipped to accommodate mobile phones with Bluetooth capability.
At the present rate of growth in 802.11 and Bluetooth enabled devices, more and more of these devices containing these two WLAN standards will operate in the same environment. This will lead to signal interferences as both standards typically operate on the same non-licensed ISM (industrial, scientific, and medical) band. In addition to signal interferences caused by devices operating at near frequencies, harmonic frequency interferences can also occur at the frequency generating sources of the two 802.11 and Bluetooth devices.
Harmonic interferences are especially prevalent where both standards are operating in the same small environment such as being in the same room, on the same computer, in the same package, or on the same semiconductor die. An example is a single access portal with the capability to transmit both 802.11 and Bluetooth compliance signals. Another example is a laptop with 802.11 capability for wirelessly connecting to the Internet and Bluetooth capability for communicating with a PDA. In yet still another example, a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone being next to a 802.11 enabled laptop, with both of the devices using their respective Bluetooth and 802.11 connectivity. In such environments, harmonic frequency interferences will likely exist because the frequency oscillators of those devices will likely interfere with each other. Unfortunately, this type of interference cannot be easily resolved.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an 802.11 transmitter to operate such that it does not interfere with another Bluetooth transmitter that is operating in close proximity.